Almost 8 million DDoS attacks launched in first half of 2023
Cybercriminals have launched approximately 7.9 million DDoS attacks in the first half of 2023, representing a 31 percent year-on-year increase.
A new report from NETSCOUT shows global events like the Russia-Ukraine war and recent NATO bids have driven recent DDoS attack growth.
DDoS attackers shift their targets
The latest global threat analysis report from Radware shows that DDoS attacks are being reshaped in terms of tactics, vector, size, complexity, and hacktivism.
The number of malicious web application transactions skyrocketed by 500 percent compared to the first half of 2022, while the total number of DDoS events decreased by 33 percent. This points to a change in DDoS attack patterns as attacks shift from the network layer to the application layer.
DDoS attacks more than doubled in 2022
New research from Nexusguard shows that last year DDoS attacks worldwide increased by 115.1 percent over the 2021 level.
Attackers have also continued to alter their threat vectors by targeting the application platforms, online databases, and cloud-based storage systems within Internet Service Providers (ISPs). This has resulted in a significantly greater impact globally as organizations continue to move more of their workloads to the cloud.
Carpet bomb DDoS attacks rise 300 percent
A new report shows that 2022 saw a 300 percent increase in 'carpet bomb' DDoS attacks compared to 2021. Carpet bomb attacks, also known as spread-spectrum or spray attacks, distribute traffic across large IP address spaces.
Legacy technology, like standard victim-oriented detection and mitigation detection techniques, often fails to accurately identify these attacks, leading to incomplete mitigation or false positives. Legacy solutions can also simply be overwhelmed by the number of IP addresses involved.
Malicious DDoS attacks up by 150 percent
In 2022, the number of DDoS attacks grew 150 percent globally compared to the previous year, while the number of attacks in the Americas rose even faster, increasing 212 percent compared to 2021.
These figures are from the 2022 Global Threat Analysis Report released today by Radware which also shows the frequency of DDoS attacks saw a significant uptick. Globally, organizations mitigated an average of 29.3 attacks per day during the fourth quarter of 2022, 3.5 times more compared to 8.4 attacks per day at the end of 2021.
Distributed Denial of Service attack: Prevention and best practices
As one of the easiest attacks to launch and often devastatingly effective, a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack is one of the most common threats in today’s cybersecurity landscape. In simple terms, a DDoS attack seeks to disrupt a target’s connectivity or user services by flooding its network with an overwhelming volume of fraudulent traffic, typically through a botnet.
The damage from a DDoS attack can be devastating. In one recent survey, 98 percent of respondents reported costs of more than $100,000 for each hour of downtime, while over one-third estimated costs in excess of $1 million. The average DDoS attack causes $218,000 in direct damage (around £179,601), in addition to any accompanying extortion, data theft, business disruption, or harm to the victim’s reputation and business and customer relationships.
DDoS attacks get smaller -- but there are more of them
The amount of DDoS attacks increased by 75.6 percent compared to the second half of 2021, but the average (0.59 Gbps) and maximum (232.0 Gbps) attack sizes each decreased by 56 percent and 66.8 percent, respectively.
New research from Nexusguard shows that single-vector attacks represented 85 percent of all attacks globally in the first half of this year. Of these User Datagram Protocol (UDP) attacks accounted for 39.6 percent, an increase of 77.5 percent from the first half of 2021, the remainder being HTTPS flood attacks.
Cybercriminals get better at bypassing defenses
Cybercriminals have become more adept at bypassing defenses with new DDoS attack vectors and successful methodologies, according to the latest DDoS Threat Intelligence Report from NETSCOUT.
The report is based on intelligence on attacks occurring in over 190 countries, 550 industries, and 50,000 autonomous system numbers (ASNs). It finds there were over six million DDoS attacks in first half of 2022, with TCP-based flood attacks (SYN, ACK, RST) still the most used attack vector, accounting for around 46 percent.
DDoS attacks on financial firms increase during Ukraine war
DDoS attacks made up 25 percent of the cyber incidents submitted to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority in the first half of 2022, compared to just four percent in 2021.
Analysis by attack simulation specialist Picus Security of information obtained from the FCA under a freedom of information request shows the rise also coincides with a reported increase in DDoS for hire websites and ransomware operators using DDoS as a tactic to pressure and extort money from targets.
The evolution of botnets and DDoS attacks
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have become an ongoing threat for organizations. Using a variety of techniques, a wide range of threat actors from lone hackers, criminal gangs and hacktivists to nation-states are using DDoS attacks to disrupt or disable the performance of target systems. These targets can be small or large businesses, internet service providers, manufacturers, retailers, healthcare providers, schools and universities, or other nation-states. Essentially, any entity with an online presence can become a DDoS target.
Now, here is the why. There are three main reasons why people create botnets: For financial gain by extortion -- 'pay up or we keep attacking’; to make a point -- 'stop (or start) doing something or we continue’; or, in the case of nation-state actors, as an espionage or cyber warfare tactic.
DDoS attacks fell last year but remain above pre-pandemic levels
The number of DDoS attacks dropped 13 percent in 2021 compared to 2020, but remained well above pre-pandemic levels.
Research from Nexusguard also shows that while the average attack size fell by 50 percent over 2021, the maximum attack size nearly tripled, growing by a whopping 297 percent over the same period.
DDoS attacks grow in size and complexity
Though the overall number fell slightly, DDoS attacks became both bigger and more complicated in 2021 according to a new report from cloud-based managed security services platform F5 Silverline.
By the final quarter of last year the mean attack size recorded was above 21 Gbps, more than four times the level at the beginning of 2020. Last year also saw the record for the largest-ever attack broken on several occasions.
Web application attacks soar as attackers get more professional
The number of malicious web application requests grew 88 percent between 2020 and 2021, with broken access control and injection attacks making up over 75 percent of them.
The latest threat analysis report from Radware shows the most attacked industries were banking and finance, along with SaaS providers, together accounting for more than 28 percent of web application attacks.
Almost 90 percent of cyberattacks in March targeted against Russia and Ukraine
We're used to a high volume of cyberattacks originating from Russia, but in an interesting turnaround following the invasion of Ukraine, 70 percent of cyberattacks in March have been targeted at Russia.
Research from Atlas VPN shows a further 19 percent of attacks targeting Ukraine. The USA is the third biggest target but attacks targeting the country accounted for only five percent of the total.
The gaming industry's latest challenge: DDoS protection
Like moths to a flame, hackers always go where the action is. As the COVID-19 pandemic drove work away from the office, businesses have faced one cyberattack after another on their remote work infrastructure. Meanwhile, a boom in virtual entertainment has brought a surge of players to the gaming industry -- and with them, a rise in DDoS attack activity.
Cybercrime rings are launching triple extortion campaigns combining DDoS attacks with ransomware, and data theft, while ordinary gamers can rent a botnet easily and affordably to cheat or disrupt competition with a DDoS attack of their own. The highly popular Titanfall 2 game has already been rendered virtually unplayable -- perhaps by as few as one or two individual players -- and seemingly abandoned by its publisher, which is now focusing on defending a newer title from similar attacks.
Recent Headlines
BetaNews, your source for breaking tech news, reviews, and in-depth reporting since 1998.
© 1998-2025 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. About Us - Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy - Sitemap.